Monday, June 25, 2018

Eden's Zero Chapter 1 Review - In a Sakura-Filled Sky

Written by Shiggins

I missed you, Mashima-senpai!

After the end of Fairy Tail, I tried writing some My Hero Academia reviews but I lacked the heart and motivation to keep them going. Thankfully, Hiro Mashima isn't done writing and now we have his next big project, Eden Zero! However, does it manage to live up to the legacy he has created so far, with Fairy Tail and Rave Master? And more importantly, what about Plue?!

So many mixed feelings in this one image!

In this extra-long debut chapter, we start our story with a young boy named Shiki who is being told by his robot grandfather about making friends and leaving this place one day. Skip ahead to years later, and we see a woman named Rebecca travelling to an island called the Granbell Kingdom with... Happy?!.. by her side. The reason? Well, she wants to reach one million subscribers on her "Blue Cat Channel."

I think I last saw these guys singing for Lord Farquaad.

A robot knight comes up to her and, upon realising she's their first customer in a hundred years, he summons all the other robots and they give an entire presentation for the theme park/kingdom. And so Rebecca begins her tour around the island, eventually end up in a jungle and smiling happily at a cat-faced dinosaur robot. The cat-dino-bot is suddenly destroyed by a new face, which makes him the only other human in the theme park.

This thing would be so badass if it didn't remind me of Happy.

Immediately, he tries to identify her as a person through the act of touch and feel, and then he tries to eat Happy. He offers to be friends with Rebecca, but his manner is so awkward and antisocial that it just annoys her and she heads off. She returns to the village but is stalked by the newcomer in every other panel, who is finally introduced as Shiki by one of the robots.

Shiki tells her about all the robots, revealing he's friends with them all, and Rebecca is able to enjoy the island some more. As she does, a spy goes underground to a robotic king who is aware of Rebecca and that "the time has come". Shiki and Rebecca talk at night, with Shiki revealing he just spends his time fixing the robots as best he can, and he's never left the island because he has to keep fixing them. Then he sleeps, and yes it is that abrupt.

Oh Mashima. Never change.

The robots tell Rebecca that he was brought here by a demon king, which is just a robot who played that role, and nobody knows his true origin. Rebecca goes to get some sleep, but not after making sure to give Shiki a haircut. The next morning, Shiki is confused with his new haircut, and can't find any of the robots. Meanwhile, Rebecca and Happy are shocked to find themselves outside and restrained to poles, about to be burned like witches.

The king of the island, not the demon king but a more traditional designed robot, appears and says he is planning to take Rebecca's ship to leave the island, so the robots will no longer need to entertain humans. Shiki is shocked to see that every robot, even Michael from the first pages, have turned against the humans. The king reveals that a virus infected them, giving them self-awareness, and Shiki was never actually repairing them because the island did it for them.

Damn. He's much cooler than the monarchy I have.

The king ignores Shiki's plea that they are friends and reveals his form, prepared to battle. The robots then run to attack Shiki, but the cries of Rebecca enable him to launch himself back up and fight back. The king and Shiki engage in a battle, and Happy tells the audience that Shiki is using "Ether Gear", a tool that allows him to use his inner ether/mana/magic/ki/chi. Shiki then defeats the king.

Shiki's EG is one of gravity, which allows him to grab Rebecca and literally change his gravity to "fall" far away to the ship. Rebecca and Happy make sure Shiki joins them and they fly away into the sky.... into space?!

My jaw dropped so hard there. Ow.

Yes, it turns out that this series is actually a sci-fi and Rebecca is from the planet Blue Garden. A colossal robot ship flies over them, with Rebecca telling her that those are called "Dragons". As the ship flies away, we look back at the robots who are full of relief that they finally managed to convince Shiki to leave this place. Yes, the demon king robot wanted Shiki to leave so he didn't end up alone on this planet, since all the robots were doomed to run out of power eventually. Happy to say goodbye to Shiki and hoping he changes the universe, the robots all settle down and officially run out of power. To put it simply, they died.

As Shiki looks back on the planet he grew up on, he sheds tears and chooses to remember the good times he had with the robots instead of the bad, thanking them for his life. Adopting the name Shiki Granbell, his journey into the cosmos begins.

Opinion: I've read far worse opening chapters.

Let's get through the biggest problem with Eden Zero first, since it was what initially got to me; The artwork.

Now, don't misunderstand me. I love Mashima-senpai's art. A bright, colourful style that you can instantly recognise was drawn by him and his assistants. When you see a Fairy Tail character, you know it's a Fairy Tail character. It isn't too sharp or too rounded, and the pages are always clear and simple to read, without a load of hubbub and mess making things difficult. (like in some modern One Piece chapters).

However... Look at these characters! Rebecca is clearly Lucy. Shiki is clearly Natsu with Gray's hair. Even the demon king looks like a nicer version of Keyes from the Tartarus arc! And to bring my point across more, let's look at the initial picture and label who looks like Fairy Tail characters.

I'm not being childish! You are!

What's even more bizarre however is the appearance of Happy! Yes, Happy the cat from Fairy Tail is here! Why?! How?! And dear god WHY?! Is he the same Happy from Fairy Tail, making this a sequel set in the far future and implying Happy is actually an immortal vampire like Negima's Evangeline, that has suffered the loss of Natsu and friends? Or is he a brand new character, but with the exact same name, face and personality? Either option fills me with dread, and annoys the hell out of me. I don't know what's going on! Plue is Mashima's iconic mascot, and that's fine because Plue is a simple mute who was only ever relevant in Rave Master. Happy on the other hand has tons of personality, and having him here is completely distracting! Couldn't they just have made a new mascot? Or even a different cat? Call him Pappy, and give him an eyepatch!

Besides "Happy", how are the rest of the characters? Well, pretty fun to be honest. I like how Shiki is the antisocial caveman-type who is a fish out of water, with no idea how to interact with other worlds and people, although I dislike him having a relation to a demon, false or not, if only because we dealt with all of that with Natsu. And I like that Rebecca is trying to get famous, but unfortunately that's where my fondness of her stops since she is essentially Lucy but without the power of keys to summon awesome spirits, so she's essentially useless in battles except as a hostage. I will admit to being slightly turned off by her speech of friendship as well. I know that manga, especially a Mashima one, love to talk about it, but this much already?

One thing I did love however was the surprisingly dark ending to the robot kingdom. Not only did they realistically play the role of the villains to make Shiki leave to greener pastures (or bluer, if the name of the planet is anything to go by), but they died! And I love that, because Fairy Tail ended with far too many survivors. This chapter literally ended with me feeling bad for a robot I barely knew about! Except the Demon King robot. I bet he's still alive somewhere. I hope he is too because he tickled me perfectly.

Trolling Robot Demon King is Bae!

Lastly, it's set in space! SPACE! I adore space! Space is the best setting of all time, with the only potential exception being Pansexual Anthropomorphised-Dinosaurs Island! The amount of possibilities that have opened up from the reveal that we're going from planet to planet is insane. A whole universe of story-telling options has just fallen into our laps, and I am gleeful at the idea that we're going to have a Ratchet and Clank-like structure, but with more boobs and less guns.

Speaking of guns, let's move on to the violence. The actual combat was adequate, but the "Ether Gear" has me curious. I love when gravity is used as a weapon in fantasy, so I am ready to see if the next few chapters explain it to us better and show us what exactly it is and what others use for combat, since the Ether Gear is apparently from "the dark ages".

Well, I'm in tears now. Thanks for that.

Will I keep reviewing this series? For now, let's say yes. We're currently in the trial period, so I will keep reviewing for 5 to 10 chapters and see if I get grabbed. I like to think that's a fair time to see if the series is worth it, since many manga and anime start off far worse than this but end up amazing. Remember how Naruto started with diarrhoea? Never quit a manga early on! Because Naruto had diarrhoea!

Until then, let us dream of the death of Happy. Yet again.

Manga Rating: 3.5/5

Character of the Week: Shiki for his awkwardness.

Best Part: Robots die as we see the stars.

Worst Part: Happy makes me angry!

I can't tell if this is stupidly contrived or stupidly awesome.

Shiggins:[Admin].

Born under the stars of the Dark Gods, Shiggins owns the power of the Great Eye and is utterly magnificent in his omniscience. If you dare to discover more about someone as great as him, then go ahead. And to all my friends and family members, YOU are wrong and I should be disappointed! Not the other way round!,.You can find out about him or ask him stuff on ask.fm/shigginsishere or go to his tumblr page http://otakugajeel.tumblr.com/

31 comments:

the only part you need to be corrected on is on happy. it's not the same happy nor is this a continuation to fairy tail as every other person who read or heard hiro's interviews on the subject. Happy just happened to be another mascot he brought back along with plue where the minor changes are the tip of his tail and the fact he can't fly. so the answer you're looking for is mainly mascot reasons and that's it.

the art style he chose is normally a fair one but mainly if this was a different guy who used the same art style but Hiro is the one doing this and he chose to do it this way to make sure those who Read Edens Zero are aware of the fact this is his actual work. 3.5 out of 5 is a fair rating where I think that's fine cause I'm of the belief that you shouldn't start big. starting small just means you get to improve and expand as the story goes on where if you start off big or too big like in boruto's case you're gonna have a hard time maintaining that and an even harder time trying to be bigger.

so overall this review is about what me and a couple of others already said on dischord but it's also important to make sure you understand the reasons to your 2 problems that you mentioned.

So it was my second guess then. New character, technically, but same face and personality. Great. Wait no. I hate that. I expected as much though.

I like his art style. I just wish the designs of the characters had changed. As I said, by pointing out how similar they look to FT characters. And yes, I think 3.5 is fine too since it is the start. The build-up.

I never said it wasn't problem but the difference is you have to understand the reasons he chose to approach it this way that way when you bring it up in future reviews or discussions with your buddies you'll understand why it's that way and have a better understanding why you would still dislike it regardless.

As for the links I mainly got it from YouTubers. One was pretty random and the other was from tokyosaurus on youtube who said something along those lines.

Actually cade you'd be surprised at how common this practice is and how often this gets people in a frenzy and it's a bigger deal than you imagine since hiro hasn't done anything wrong given how common what he chose to do in designs is very very common to the point you never realize till you look at boruto and how quick people panic at change in art styles. I mean hell people panic when there's a change in animation style. So honestly your opinion is more based on the very minority compared to how the majority react and like it or not the majority us what influences these things.

@Cade Conner. next time hit the reply button to start things off. okay first off look at Dragon Ball to Super then compare to Dragon Quest from first one all the way to what's current.

for Hiro this is exactly how he sold you fairy tail when he started the manga. first couple of volumes was the exact same character designs as the characters in Rave where Elie was Lucy, Haru was Natsu, and Musica was Gray. exact same thing happening here. whether the designs change over the course of this series or not depends on how it does story wise.

the point I'm saying is you can look up any manga works a mangaka has done and not he or she is using exact or similar character base designs in different stories. so you're complaint is odd if this is your first time noticing it. I mean if anything I'm more surprised you complain about this over A-1 Studios in how a lot of their anime characters look more like each other than other mangakas do.

Technically you can't since this is common as in it happens everyday and the fact you're only realizing this is happening means you don't pay attention to what's happening in what's being sold to you. Seriously if that was enough to fail a serious anime and cartoons would've been over a long time ago.

How you reply and the words you choose give more away than you needing to imply it. Even your latest reply shows you never noticed it before now. So if you feel cheated then perhaps you should stick to live action films since feeling to judge everything on visuals alone is a bit sad.

No they're not. They're only insane if you never paid attention to these things before hand. It's insane to be a adult aged person and complain about something that's been common since before you were likely even born. If this kind of thing already has you upset I really don't see you as someone who enjoys much out of life if you're going into a rant on something that never changes. So calling out one person for doing what everyone else before him has done is plain ignorant and stupid. If you want to make your point at least cover on how others do this as well and present it in a way where you hate how all of them do this over attacking one person on that issue cause otherwise it's only going to be a rant from someone who has likely not been paying attention to what he watches where you can't even call it an opinion.

And that is a prime example of why I can never take you seriously. You try to make a point, but all you end up doing is turning into some bullshit attack against me.

I'm not even mad about it. It annoys me a bit, but it's not like it's a deal breaker. I'm still going to read the manga regardless.

You have been constantly putting words in my mouth, and they are completely false every time. I have seen this in other instances, they annoyed me then too, I'm not going to bring them up every time it happens, because that just isn't necessary.

This isn't the only time I've seen you do this either. Sean's hatred for One Piece is well documented at this point, and I can remember at least one article where you did the same shit you're doing here. Trying to invalidate the opposing opinion just because you don't agree with it.

We are allowed to think how we want. You may not agree with it, and that's fine. You may think it's stupid, and that's fine. But our opinions are just as valid as yours. And any mindset that says otherwise is just juvenile.

And yet here you are acting like no one is allowed to say anything different so how bout you stop being hypocritical where if that's what you think then stop being a child about it since you can't handle opinions apparently or even a difference of one and stop acting like you think you're right. And no those are your words so stop trying to act like you or one person's opinion is correct since the fact you still reply without understanding something so basic shows you are not very bright where instead of viewing another person's opinion you are doing the very thing you just complained about.

you're implications are there and glad to know you have a snowflake attitude where you are easily offended by any random person you will likely never meet in real life. it must feel so amazing to feel like you have to reply to someone you feel annoyed by.

so yeah I know what you said. also that line about you getting say what are words are BS since it sounds more like you just use the same words as another person would say so keep telling yourself those are your words.

So when someone's full of shit I should just let them be full of shit?

And buddy, you're doing the same shit I am right now. We both want the last word. If you truly think that I'm some ignorant dumbass who can't be reasoned with, then you'd have no reason to continue this conversation.

Or maybe you're like me, and you're dragging this out because you find it hilarious

least I'm not pretending since you like to pretend to be someone you're not in real life.

and I don't have a reason to continue it since you're the one who brought us here and keep trying to make it like you're the victim of something cause you felt "offended" or "annoyed" as you like to keep saying. so yeah congrats on admitting to being ignorant while I get my laughs. you must feel so proud to reply to someone you feel annoyed by.

also anyone who's dumb enough to reply to what they thought was shit was already the one full of shit themselves to begin with since as this shows you pretty much turned it into that. so have fun being the ignorant dumbass you claim to be.

Huh. I've been happily surprised. If the structure and details are genuine and not my positive bias, I've got quite a lot to look forward to;- The whole treatment of cliche fantasy,which you could make into a jab to FT even, or at least a nod to fans, to then reveal the setting change.

- As you said, actually using for-realsies death like it did. Albeit I can trust Demon King, as well as "Michael" (he can't be on cover art for no reason! Right?) to come back later.

- Yup, using the same characters is pretty much indefensible. I'd trust them to have more twists character wise as it goes and maybe even subvert some stuff (his "quirk" so far seems narcolepsy lol), but it's safe to deem uneccesary. Funnily enough Rebecca is the most different from their "inspiration" but in B&W the differences are ruled out.

- Yet again "nakama power", but I did appreciate that it wasn't supposed to completely stand on itself but rather actually having you wonder *a bit* on if they were really fucking with him and could feel anything at all, and turning out to be the opposite didn't ruin it.

All in all, I feel like there's quite a lot to look forward to. If anything, I'll expect it to be a space opera to show off different enviromenents and styles with their inhabitants (every planet can be an Edolas! That'd be kickass) to gawk at and little else, so I don't get burned.

This manga is horrible.He is copying not only Fairy tail but also rave master. With the shaking (Plue was shaking in rave also) , with copy/paste of the character, not only in design but almost same personality also. (Lucy/rebecca)And i don't even wanna start with this "friendship" thing that is his tradmark. it makes me wanna puke. He had 77 pages and maybe more than 100 times "i wanna be friend/lets be friend/your friend/friend/friend friend... "

You do know that's every shonen genre and it's been explained why he chose similar designs and all that stuff you whine about where those posts alone were already a warning sign on what you were gonna get from the beginning. Like seriously you'd have to be ignorant to not have seen this coming from a mile away in what to expect. So how bout an actual criticism over ranting so what you're saying actually sounds like you read over skimming it.

And like I told everyone before you he chose not to since this is how he transitioned from rave to fairy tail and you likely won't see that uniqueness till much later. Seriously how do people not know this? His work patterns are predictable and he even gives you sneak peaks on his Twitter months ahead of time really surprised me on how a few of you never tried looking at what he releases.